In recent years, Chicago has cemented itself as a popular place to build food and beverage startups.
With local food startup success stories like RXBAR, which was acquired for $600 million by Kellogg in 2017, and Simple Mills, the maker of gluten-free, soy-free, non-GMO and paleo-friendly baking mixes that can be bought at Mariano’s and Whole Foods, Chicago is now known as a viable place to build a food startup.
Because of the activity in this booming industry, Chicago tech investors and accelerators have put a new focus on food and beverage companies in the city. Last year, Kraft Heinz launched Springboard, a Chicago-based incubator that helps grow early-stage food brands. Kraft Heinz also operates Evolv Ventures, a $100 million Chicago-based VC fund that backs food companies.
Additionally, Tyson Foods has a $150 million startup venture fund in Chicago and a partnership with Chicago tech incubator 1871.
More recently, Gordon Food Service, Relish Works and 1871 have partnered to operate the Food Foundry, an accelerator program that mentors food startups. And this week, the Food Foundry revealed the startups in its second cohort, which begins Jan. 13.
The 16-week program takes place at Gordon’s Food Service’s corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich., but the program is largely modeled with resources, mentorship and technical guidance from 1871.
Cohort companies will receive advice from 1871 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, such as Rebecca Sholiton, the chief operating officer at Bonfire, Marty Hahnfeld, the chief customer officer at Olo, and Chris Freeman, the vice president of business advisory and office tenancy at Colliers International.
“By partnering with Relish Works and Gordon Food Service, we’re able to pair our expertise in helping startups scale with their proficiency in the food distribution industry,” said 1871 CEO Betsy Ziegler in a statement. “Together, we’ll provide foodservice startups with a first-class curriculum grounded in our newly launched PYROS initiative, which will advance their business and ensure that they’re investor ready.”
The Food Foundry said it chose startups based on their ability to demonstrate consumer demand, revenue and compelling solutions for needs in the restaurant and food industries. Of the seven companies, three are based in Chicago.
See them all below:
Sociavore: Founded in 2018 by Thusenth Dhavaloganathan and Amina Gilani, Sociavore is a website builder and e-commerce platform for restaurants. Based in Ontario, Canada, the startup allows restaurant owners to easily design a website, communicate with their patrons and grow revenue with access to helpful analytics.
Bikky: Based in New York, Bikky is an omni-channel CRM for restaurants that provides guest data and marketing insights. The platform aggregates guest data across a restaurant's various systems so they can see what guests are ordering and where they order.
Science Retail: Based in Chicago, Science Retail has created a subscription-based IT support platform for independent hospitality businesses. Their clients include Parlor Pizza Bar, the Twisted Hippo and Dark Matter Coffee. Besides Chicago, the startup offers its services in New York and Los Angeles.
Tablee: The startup makes smart watches for restaurant servers that connect to table devices, which patrons use to let their server know when they need something. Based in Richmond, Virginia, Tablee says its tech helps streamline and improve service.
Augie: Augie has built a marketplace to streamline the supply chain. The platform allows grocery stores to easily manage their closeout process, and get distressed and short-dated inventory out to buyers.
Retail Aware: Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Retail Aware has created a wireless sensor for brick-and-mortar retailers that tracks consumer patterns. The company says its tech is being used across 133 cities.
OjaExpress: This Chicago-based same-day grocery delivery platform provides easy and convenient access to hard-to-find foods from global cultures and cuisines. It was also recently in the 1871 and the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Latinx Incubator.
